Alright, here's my review on this set. It's my first Clone Wars set and I really didn't know what to expect from both the ships and the minifigs, although I have watched the movie a few time and have it on Blu-Ray disc and all. But anyways, now to the set:

At first glance, 471 pieces for $55 sounds like a rip-off to some people, and after reading many different comments about this set, that is the major problem. However, let me say that it is well worth the price, considering the amount of unique pieces and the size of this ship. Of course, the best part of this set is the mechanization of the wings and landing gear, which move simultaneously as you move the bottom wing up and down. That's the amazing part of it and the first Star Wars set to feature this function, I believe (not counting the turn-gear mechanization used in the ARC-170). You could also argue that the Clone Pilot is another goodie, and it is great, even though you only get one minifig in this set.

I spent about 1.5 hours building this set, being very precise and making sure my V-19 looks exactly like the one in the instructions booklet. As a result, I never encountered the gear problem that many other owners of this set have. And if you are having trouble with building this and getting the wing/landing gear function to work, make sure that the landing gear is fully deployed (meaning all the way down) and the two attachments to the wings (from the engine area) are all the way up. Then, you have done your job correctly. If not, just adjust the gears in the middle section of the engine to get this thing working properly. Just be careful as you are building it for the first time.

Final result: A V-19 with a wingspan of around 19 inches with great playability features. It is slightly bigger than the ARC-170 and it is not as tedious or as slow to change the wings from landing to flying position. Another neat feature is the sliding cockpit, which works very smoothly and gives more than enough room for big fingers to put the pilot in his seat because it even tilts upwards once you slide it all the way out. Another feature is the flick-fire missles, common and available in just about every other Star Wars set. They don't fly far, but at least they don't fall out either (as in the newer Y-wing).

The detail in this set is fairly good. The stickers add a nice touch, but they are stickers after all. And the engines look really nice and use unique "engine" pieces, probably one of the reasons of the higher price. The other interesting part is that uhh...I don't know what to call it but it's like a syringe without the tip (or maybe a pump without the needle). This allows the main function to work and is not a very common piece to find in a set. You might find it useful someday when you create a MOC that requires mechanical components. The interior is limited because it is just a one-man fighter, but the computer/dash piece is nice and printed, not stickered. I feel that for the vertical/bottom wing, there is an overuse of turntable pieces and looks kind of funky, but I like the way TLC incorporated the engine like things on the bottom wing too.

Some small complaints: I find it somewhat hard to find a good position to hold this ship when I'm trying to move the landing gear/wings around. Maybe it's just me. Another minor problem is the open cockpit, which doesn't matter too much to me, but others would have liked to see it completely closed. When in landing mode, the V-19 slants down at an angle, but I think the reason for this is to balance and keep it from tipping over. But overall, it's a nice set and it depends if you would buy this over an AAT or Republic Attack Shuttle. I got this off Amazon (in a box that was pretty crapped up on one edge) for about $41, making it all the more worth the money. I believe it is still on sale (for under $40 in fact) and has been for at least 2 months now.

Summary:

Price to parts: 8/10 (at my price, 10)Parts: 9/10 (a lot of your typical technic pieces and plates, but some atypical pieces as well, i.e. the pump pieces) Availability: 10/10 (this seems to be the only 2008 CW set that nobody is buying )Minifigs: 7/10 (one great minfig...but only one; nevertheless, you can't get the pilot clone in a cheaper set than this one, and this set ain't that cheap)Playability: 9/10 (landing gear/wings, sliding cockpit, flick fires)Build: 8/10 (not great, but interesting at the same time)Detail: 7/10 (I didn't expect much detail in the first place because there is no interior and it's not supposed to be that detailed in the movie either)

Ah, the V-19… one of the more old school looking ships to come from the prequel trilogy. Folding wings, big engines, what’s not to like?

Turns out, a lot actually. It’s no secret I’m a bigger fan of the original trilogy and by correlation the ships from that era, although the Naboo Starfighter has a certain sleekness I can’t ignore, so pitting the V-19 Torrent against the mess of droid fighters, Jedi starships, Republic Gunships and the V-wing puts it easily ahead of it’s Clone Wars siblings. So why the tone of disappointment? Read on.

First lets talk value. For $54.99 you get 471 parts. That works out to almost 12 cents a brick. Everyone knows that the 10 cents per brick rule of thumb is slipping, so it’s not excessively high for a licensed set. But consider the variety of the parts included. Lots of large plates and wings/wedges mixed in with an unusually large number of Technic elements, with a bit of Bionicle tossed in to keep you on your toes. I’m of the camp that thinks no part is a useless part, but I still get the feeling this lot isn’t as alt-model friendly as a more unified pallet would allow. Also, as a result of the two sort of incongruous sets of ingredients, the build was a mix of enjoyment and confusion.

Right from the start I knew it wasn’t your typical system construction. The pilots seat seems to be able to tilt forward and back, a neat feature I thought at first, then the next step is to fix it in place. What a tease! My pilots like to recline! I guess that’s only in the luxury edition V-19s though. And it just gets stranger from there.

As I began assembling the mass of intertwining beams and axles, I was pretty happy about it. I grew up building both system and Technic sets, so I thought I was in for a treat having them melded into one. But as it went together something felt wrong. There was no cohesion. The parts get the job done but they don’t do it very well. Note how the unfinished model stands at a tilt? Surely they would remedy this by build’s end right? They couldn’t possibly just leave the jumble of beams exposed and call it landing gear could they? No, that’s ridiculous. They’ve got to have something in store to make it look good.

Haha, psych! That’s exactly what their plan was. At this point I was pretty disappointed. Not only was the body sitting on some oversized and unfinished looking chunk of plastic – but it was still leaning forward! I went back and built it again to make sure I lined up all the pegs right, but same result. On the bright side at least, the effect of the landing gear seemed to work alright, and I do so love it when the wings all move in unison like they should. So I finished it off with forced though cautious optimism.

So there it is. Aside from the tilt and ugly “landing gear” it’s not so bad… A few gaps where you’d rather not see them, but that’s to be expected with an official set. Overall it matches the ship I remember for the Clone Wars cartoons, and it’s a pretty impressive size once it’s completed. Bigger than I expected in fact. Almost too big to fit my photo setup.

So, of course, once you have something like this in hand, and you let the wings slide down, it’s time for some swooshin! But be careful: you learn pretty quick with the set that bigger isn’t always better. The wings, though impressive, feel dangerously flimsy when you try any of the fun maneuvers. The inability to lock the s-foils in attack position makes loops and rolls fairly impossible, and with any light bobbing motion (you know, like what happens when you walk?) the Torrent starts doing it’s impression of a seagull taking off. The 4-knob gear things that link the motion of the wings together isn’t the tightest mesh, and plastic axles flex by their very nature – so there’s just too much torque for the parts to handle. I haven’t managed to break mine yet, but I fully expect to. Maybe I should have. Just dropped it… you know, to see how it held up? For science! I’m sure my cat would love helping my find all the parts that are bound to scatter when it hits the floor.

Oh, and speaking of cats, this has flick fire missiles! And they work as great as ever – meaning not very well. If you really want to give your pets and siblings something to run from, you need the spring loaded plunger thing. Pity the Rogue Shadow is the only Star Wars set in recent years to feature it. Those are pretty much wasted space, but apparently kids love em in the focus groups so they’re here to stay.

Now, the last thing on my list is the minifig.

The lonely, sad, ugly Clone Pilot. I know this is a starfighter and it doesn’t have room for a passenger… but I’m a big fan of minifigs – and for a $55 set to come with a single non-unique minifigure – well that’s just kind of a let down. I’m trying hard not to dock the figure itself for being the hideous animated style, so I’ll break it down to the good parts. Yes, there is a minifigure, so you get a point for that. Wasn’t that easy? And it’s a fitting figure: a pilot for a fighter; so there’s another easy point. Plus they armed him, somewhat needlessly, but I’ll give a third point for including the gun. And I think I’ll actually give one more to him, since it must be hard being so ugly. Your life is bad enough as it is, ugly clone pilot, I won’t make it any harder than I have to.

All in all, I wanted to like this set. I really did. I like the V-19, and I hoped that this could be as good as the latest X-Wing and Y-wing sets we’ve gotten. I know the designers are up to the task… but this managed to fall short. Maybe my bias against the Clone Wars in general is clouding my judgment. Surely if you like the animated style figures you’d rank him higher, and make the build will feel a bit more sturdy to you. For me, however, I simply was not impressed. I should go pick up one of those new OT playsets to quell my dissatisfaction.

Yer nuts. I kinda like the technic landing gear. it's a lot better than the lame-o landing gear in set's like the y-wing fighter which, if memory serves, were simply inverted slope bricks. and i also like the aggressive forward tilt of when its landed.

Not sure I feel quite as strongly about all of its short-comings, but I certainly agree with everything mentioned in your review. It's a nice model, but could some significant improvements been made to make it a really great model? Absolutely.

Even though I don't entirely agree with all of your assesments on this set, I don't feel the review was too long. You cover all the concern that a potential buyer would want to know before the purchase. If you're going to critique something it should be done right, and you went the distance and did it with honesty on why you reviewed it the way you did.

But really, this post isn't about a critque of your review. The most impressive thing about it is the photos. Great job on the shot of the V-19 with the fully extended wings. Any tips on how you were able to do those shots and make it appear to actually be flying? How did you hold it upright for those pictures?

<O> <O>"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room." -Winston Churchill

As for the set, I really loved it. Yes, the wings wiggle, but I expected that. Yes, it's tilted when landed, but that gives it a battle ready look. And it feels pretty solid to when swooshing it... Then again, with those big wings I like to see it soaring around gently rather than doing flips and rolls.

Last edited by Robzula on Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually I didn't see they were additional images at the bottom of the review. I thought they were a recap. Still, it's ingenius in my opinion. It's always good to have a critical eye for your own work, but still you made it look impressive. It's a space craft with a lot of white on a white background, and nothing is lost detail wise. The ship doesn't dissappear in spots. You did this even though a black background might have been a safer bet, but you still pulled it off this way.

<O> <O>"Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room." -Winston Churchill

Nice review, I agree with your point about the tilt, I think that is the way its supposed to look, but it annoys me seeing it tipped forward. The landing gear doesn't bother me that much, but they could have spent a little more time making it look good. Also, a nitpick: With all due respect, I believe 7674 is the correct set number for this version of the V-19, although the mini is 8031.

(OMG, am I trying to get a reputation for being nitpicky around here?)

~Sam (Teekay)

I don't know why I dropped back here again lately. LEGO can no longer hold my interest, and I'm almost certainly gone forever. Bye to all who remember me.

I have mixed feelings about this set. The build seemed to be all Technic, moreso than any other standard Star Wars set. It's not that dislike Technic in sets, but I rarely find that part of the build all that satisfying. This was a gift for my older son, and generally he builds the sets with occasional input from me. Thus time I pretty much had to take over. So the build was tiresome.

I'll admit that the end result of all that Technic was pretty cool. The folding wing mechanism looks incredibly accurate and works flawlessly. I can't imagine a standard Lego set from even a few years ago being this sophisticated. I can't pass by this ship without wanting to play with the wings. In that sense it is much more satisfying than the painfully slow foils on the X-wing.

The parts to price ratio is average considering the size of the pieces you get. Most sets in this wave weren't much better.

For its size, I find it a fairly swooshable ship, or at any rate it looks cool being swooshed. It's really too big to swoosh like an A-wing or something. Personally the landing gear is functional enough for me, and I kind of like the sloping effect.

The sole minifig is disappointing. But all the sets in that wave were disappointing at least as far as actual minfig count goes--the gunship and AT-TE being ridiculously undermanned for instance. His helmet isn't only slightly different than a normal clone, so no big treat there. An extra Jedi (Yoda, Mace, etc...), or at the very least a ground crew would have made this set seem more reasonably priced.

Once built however, you forget what a pain it was building the thing and you are left with one sweet ride for your clone pilot. Since there isn't a seat on the thing for a friend anyway, the annoyance of a pricey set coming with just one fig fades in time too. In the end I'd give the set a solid 7 overall. Maybe even an 8--the folding wings are cool.

"He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative." - G.K. Chesterton

The one thing I don't like about this set is that the V-19 is oversized and out of scale. It dwarfs a ARC-170 which is a 3 person fighter, even gunships look small compared to the V-19. I think the set is oversized due to the wing and landing gear mechanism.